Review: THE ISLAND at Kansas City Actors Theatre

"The Island" is a play about man's inhumanity to man in a time and place and system so horrendous that it no longer exists. The system was apartheid. Apartheid was a system of racial segregation that lasted in South Africa as late as 1994. The play, a very thinly veiled protest to Apartheid, was first performed in 1973 at Capetown SA under the title "The Space" because its subject was that controversial.

The setting is a two man cell at Robbin Island, the notorious political prison off the coast of South Africa. It was the prison that housed activist and later South African President Nelson Mandela for twenty-seven years.

Playwriting credit goes to Athol Fugard, John Kanni, and Winston Ntshona. Athol Fugard, a white South African playwright, took a job as a clerk in a Native Commissioners' Court. Fugard was appalled by the level of racism he witnessed. He became a moving force behind a small theater group dedicated to classical plays. Among these plays was the final chapter in the Oedipus cycle, "Antigone." Ntshona was scheduled to play the title role, but instead was incarcerated. Established actor John Kanni took over from Ntshona. The two were later introduced by Fugard after Kanni's sentence was served.

While incarcerated, Ntshona attempted to mount "Antigone" from memory. From that experience grew "The Island." of an improvisation. "The Island" centers on two inmates, John and Winston. It is a short play; only about eighty minutes and the entire action depends on only four scenes.

Scene one is a pantomime without dialog. John and Winston are engaged in a make-work labour detail. Each man shovels sand into a wheel barrow and moves the sand to the area being shoveled by the other man and then dumped. It is the classic pointless labour.

Scenes two and three take the audience through the rehearsal process and through one man's petition for clemency being favorably acted upon. Scene four is their performance of the play. One takes the part of Antigone, who defies the laws of the state to bury her brother, and the other takes the part of her uncle Creon, who sentences her to die for her crime of conscience.

The play draws parallels between Antigone's situation and the situation of black political prisoners on the island. "The Island" bears testament to the resiliency of the human heart.

"The Island" is ably directed by Walter Coppage and well-acted by Teddy Trice and Damron Rusel Armstrong. It is an experience worth having and a reminder that this kind of injustice in various venues still happens in our world. John and Winston were awarded an unusual joint Tony as best actor during their Broadway run in 1974.

Tickets for "The Island" are available on the Kansas City Actors Theatre website or by telephone at 816-235-6222. The play is performed on Union Station's City Stage Theater.

Photo Credit to Kansas City Actors Theatre

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